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Tsunami Relief: Download to Donate

New, unreleased songs by leading artists, Linkin Park, Angels & Airwaves, Sara Bareilles, B’z, Counting Crows, Flyleaf, Hoobastank, Enrique Iglesias, Plain White T’s, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Staind, Slash, Elliott Yamin and more have been compiled by the nonprofit Music For Relief to support Save the Children’s emergency response efforts to the quake and tsunami in Japan. The exclusive and growing catalog of songs can be downloaded here for a donation of $10 or more. One hundred percent of the proceeds will be directed to Save the Children for the duration of the campaign, which runs through May 11, 2011. Several participating artists have direct ties to Japan including Mike Shinoda co-lead vocalist of Linkin Park and Doug Robb of Hoobastank who are both of Japanese decent and B’z, the best selling rock band in Japan.

“The people of Japan — especially the children — will need our help for many weeks and months to come,” said Mike Shinoda, the co-lead vocalist of the band Linkin Park, which founded Music For Relief. “We are proud to partner with Save the Children, which has decades of experience in helping children and families impacted by disaster.”

“Our country is facing one of the most difficult situations ever,” said Tak Matsumoto and Koshi Inaba from the B’z. “We have to do whatever it takes to rebuild our beautiful homes. If playing music could help people in hardship, that’s what we can do now. That’s what we must do now.”

Save the Children has been working in Japan for 25 years. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the international development and relief organization deployed emergency response teams to assess the needs of children and their families. In addition, the organization has set up a child-friendly space in an evacuation center in Sendai City where families who lost their homes are staying. It provides children with an opportunity to play safely with other children while freeing up parents to work on the recovery. More child-friendly spaces will be set up in the coming days. “Children are always the most vulnerable in any disaster,” said Charles MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children. “We are grateful this partnership with Music For Relief will help address the immediate and ongoing needs of children and families impacted by this emergency.”

Music For Relief established Download to Donate as an immediate response to the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake. Download to Donate V2.0 launched on the one-year anniversary of the quake, and has raised over $270,000. Last month, Linkin Park participated in Facebook’s virtual Town Hall discussion on Haiti hosted by the UN Foundation with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, to raise awareness on recovery efforts, with Download to Donate being the primary call to action during the discussion.

One of the most unique aspects of DOWNLOAD TO DONATE: TSUNAMI RELIEF is its community element. On the site, songs are downloaded and fans are encouraged share the program on their own social network pages to help spread the word. “We ask that everyone donate, but if all you can afford is to spread the word, share Download to Donate on Facebook, Twitter, whatever, then that is great, too,” said Mike Shinoda. “It all helps.”

“Our hearts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy,” said Enrique Iglesias. “Now is the time for us to stick together and do everything we can to help our friends in need.”

Listen to Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park talk about his relief efforts

In addition to the songs, Music For Relief is also raising funds for the Download to Donate: Tsunami Relief campaign for Japan through two t-shirt designs created by Shinoda, which are available here

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About Music For Relief
Founded by two-time Grammy winning/multi-platinum rock band Linkin Park, Music For Relief is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing aid to victims of natural disasters and the prevention of such disasters. Since its inception in 2005, Music For Relief has raised over $3.9 million for victims of multiple disasters across four continents including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, hurricanes Katrina and Rita, China’s Wenchuan earthquake, a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe and the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake. Music For Relief also supports environmental programs to help in prevention and mitigation of future natural disasters such as the Send Dirt campaign for wetlands protection and restoration and the Million Tree Project in China’s Inner Mongolia Desert. MFR has organized a benefit concert featuring multi-platinum artists, sent musicians and volunteers to Southeast Asia and the U.S. Gulf Coast to help rebuild and donate supplies to people in need, and planted over 810,000 trees to help reduce global warming. For more information visit www.musicforrelief.org.